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We once had a Cisco phone setup that didn’t really have a test-system, and I was tasked with automating phone creation/updates for around 5000 employees. The do
by moksly 7y ago
We once had a Cisco phone setup that didn’t really have a test-system, and I was tasked with automating phone creation/updates for around 5000 employees. The documentation for the API wasn’t very good at explaining what each setting was, and I got one of them wrong. It wasn’t wrong for those of us whom I tested it on, but it was wrong for quite a lot of people. As a result a few hundred people in the city of Skanderborg where I work, had their phones deleted. Which is sort of a big issue. Because it was weakly testet we rolled it out mostly to departments we knew, but one of those was IT, and suddenly the phone support for 5000ish employees was out.
The head of IT wasn’t happy when I told him, but his reaction was perfect. I was pretty new and I think he could tell that I was down about the situation. He told me that we all make mistakes, but it’s the people who own up to them that are useful. It’s some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten, and today I can’t even imagine working in a culture where mistakes aren’t allowed.
I don’t think you should test your phone-automation software in production. You really shouldn’t, unless it’s the only option you have and the reward far outweigh the risks. Because after my mistake, I got the settings right, and the automation saved thousands of man hours.
- mmsimanga 7y agoI often wonder whether one of the factors that decides whether boss is understanding or not is if the boss himself was once in the trenches. I worked as manager for a decade and the first thing I always did when such things happened was to try find the solve the problem. No use crying over spilt milk. As a senior developer now I am definitely more empathetic certain types of mistakes made by juniors.
- heymijo 7y agoI've found one of the quickest things to atrophy for managers is their empathy for being an IC. If I had to conjecture, it's much more a person's mindset, the organizational culture, and their incentives (so the system), that will dictate how they respond to mistakes. I have seen this in organizations from to tech, to education, non-profits, and beyond.
- mmsimanga 7y agoYou make many valid points that I agree with. On a person's mindset, I would say a manager's character does play a role in how they will react. Sometimes some managers are too weak and fear the higher ups so will unleash on the junior. Sometimes though the manager, themselves are also going through issues in their own life so yeah the person's mindset will play a role. The type of organisation will play a role. If incentives are wrong the wrong types of people get promoted and it has the potential to go downhill very quickly.